0km, the 46th running of the race of the two seas began with a flat team time trial starting and ending in Marina di Carrara in Tuscany. Team Rabobank was the first out of the starthouse, finishing with seven of their eight riders in a time of 21' 20". Sky had a slow start, but picked up speed as their ride wore on, finishing fourteen seconds faster than Rabobank. Astana and Saxobank, finished 17 and 20 seconds off Sky's time. We (T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft) started last, being one of the four Professional Continental teams that were awarded wildcards.

3km, Vasil Kiryienka started strong, he's our leader during this stage race, so it's up to him to achieve our sponsorgoal; top-3, general classification.

6km, all other teams had already passed the intermediate time, Rabobank were the fastest starters in 8' 45". Mainly thanks to Ovechkin and Markov, who took over after Kiryienka's start, we were only 3 seconds behind Rabobank! Lampre and Liquigas 4 and 5 seconds off Rabobank's intermediate time. Sky, being the fastest at the end, were 6 seconds behind the Dutch farmers.

10km, with only 6 kilometres left to go Ignatiev and Petrov came in front to maintain the fast pace.

13km, Ovechkin and Markov, who both did a great job in the beginning of stage, were both dropped 3 kilometres from the finishline.

16km, eager to finish strong, Kiryienka agian took control, finishing first in 21' 22". T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft on the podium! A great start for our team, the squads of Giovanni Visconti and defending champion Stefano Garzelli both lost considerable time, finishing 51 seconds off the pace. Bradley Wiggins took the first blue jersey as race leader since he had been the first Sky rider to cross the finish line.

0km, the 102nd "La classica di Primavera" ( aka "the Spring classic" ) is the fourth and longest race of this year's UCI WorldTour (293 kilometres). Alexandr Viktorovich Kolobnev is our leader for today, let's hope he can live up to the sponsor expectations; top-5.

40km, the first hour of the race was characterised with numerous attacks. Grega Bole of Lampre - ISD was the most active escapee, he initiated the first breakaway group.

45km, more and more riders joined the leading group, at the end 18 riders got clear of the peloton. But the big leading group was taken back by the peloton (Team Garmin-Cervélo didn't like the size of the breakaway group).

143km, on the foot of the Passo del Turchino Sebastian Langeveld of Rabobank finally managed to get clear of the pack. Langeveld was the first rider to reach the summit of the climb, and thus entered the famous tunnel solo. Two minutes after Langeveld, a group of 3 riders arrived at the Passo del Turchino tunnel; Michael Barry of Sky ProCycling, Bernhard Eisel of HTC-Highroad and Boris Shpilevsky of T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft. The peloton was behind by 6'24.

208km, during the downhill of Le Mania (the second climb of Milano-Sanremo and known for its dangerous descent) Assan Bazayev of Pro Team Astana crashed hard. The crash caused chaos, splitting the peloton in two. Robbie McEwen, André Greipel, Mark Cavendish and Alexey Mikhailovich Markov lost contact with the peloton, because of Bazayev's crash.

263km, Langeveld and the three other esacpees were caught by the peloton with just 31 kilometers to go. A few seconds later Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (fearing a sprint finish) attacked on the foot of the Cipressa. Van Avermaet, Cancellara and Kolobnev joined Flecha in his breakaway attempt.

275km, on the Cipressa "Groupo Flecha" was quickly reeled back in, Nick Nuyens and Philippe Gilbert took control during the descent, only 13 riders were capable of following them! Petacchi, Bennati, Haussler, Farrar and Boasson Hagen had been dropped on the Cipressa.

290km, Gilbert, Hushovd, Cancellara, Ivanov and Boonen left their fellow escapees behind on the last climb, the Poggio di San Remo.

292km, Hushovd was forced to lead the sprint in the streets of San Remo with Gilbert and Cancellara right in his wheel.

293km, Philippe Gilbert outsmarted Thor Hushovd and Fabian Cancellara in the final sprint. Sergey Valeryevich Ivanov and Tom Boonen finished 4th and 5th, Greg Van Avermaet won the group sprint for sixth place. For the first time this season we didn't achieve our sponsorgoal: Kolobnev finished 12th.

0km, the 79th running of the Critérium International is our last goal of the month: Top-10 General Classification. Whoever claims the leader's yellow jersey after this first mountain stage, will probably maintain his advantage to the end of the race (next 2 stages are both tomorrow; a flat stage and a short individual time trial).

161km, as tradition dictates, the morning breakaway collected all the intermediate sprints, and was reeled-in by the peloton, 20km before the finsihline. Ag2r, who controlled the peloton all day, layed down a fast pace to get to the morning's breakaway group and with only 16km to go, the peloton had dropped half of its riders!

166km, Ag2r, with five riders in front of the peloton, kept the pace high and continued to drop riders. Ten more kilometres to go and Evgeni Petrov (our race leader) was still looking good.

173km, only 3 kilometres left with Petrov trying to escape the front group (13 riders). A smart move by Petrov, he isn't the fastest uphill sprinter, so this early attack might work!

175km, too bad for Evgeni Petrov, Riblon and Taaramäe overpowered him in the last kilometre, but his 3rd place will definitely be enough to achieve our sponsor goal!

Summary March 2011 March was a good month for our team; we were able to achieve 2 out of our 3 sponsor goals, Top 3 Tirreno - Adriatico (V.Kiryienka 3rd) and Top 10 Critérium International (E.Petrov 3rd). Unfortunately for the second time this season we didn't achieve a sponsorgoal: Top 5 Milano-Sanremo, Kolobnev finished 12th. We only have one goal for next month (April): Liège - Bastogne - Liège, Top-5. We will use the other races as preparation for the Giro d'Italia (May).

0km, 158 riders are about to start the Gran Premio Miguel Indurain. The race starts in Estella, loops through the Spanish region of Navarre with an uphill finish at the Basílica del Puy.

92km, halfway through race we had a big group (19 riders), 3 minutes ahead of the peloton. All pressure was on T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft to close the gap, with Kolobnev as today's favourite and no riders in the breakaway.

154km, the breakaway was reeled in on the Alto de Lezaun, great job by T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft!

174km, with only 10 kilometers to go Txurruka placed a "démarrage" on the Alto de Eraul, Vanendert, Sørensen, Lobato and Kolobnev were able to jump to his wheel.]

181km, a few riders (Soler and Voeckler) were able to join the front group on the Alto de Eraul descent, a group-uphill-sprint would decide who would win this year's Gran Premio Miguel Indurain...